Digital Bureaucracy and Youth Dissent: A Governance and Participation Perspective

Digital bureaucracies in Africa are increasingly positioned as instruments of transparency and service delivery. Yet, paradoxically, they are also being deployed to suppress youth dissent and reconfigure civic space. This paper interrogates that duality through a critical integrative review of over 60 peer-reviewed articles, policy reports, and digital governance frameworks, selected via targeted searches across Scopus, JSTOR, and regional repositories. Anchored in Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” (WPR) framework and Foucault’s governmentality lens, the analysis explores how algorithmic systems, biometric registries, and predictive analytics are reshaping state–citizen relations. Drawing on case studies such as #EndSARS (Nigeria), #FeesMustFall (South Africa), and #RejectFinanceBill2024 (Kenya), the paper maps the tension between youth-led democratic innovation and institutional exclusion. It introduces two monitoring tools—the Dissent Responsiveness Score and the Participation Diversity Index—to assess how digital bureaucracies respond to civic engagement. The findings reveal that while digital platforms offer new avenues for participation, they also embed surveillance logics, algorithmic bias, and data asymmetries that disproportionately affect youth. The paper concludes with normative recommendations for inclusive digital governance, emphasizing co-creation, transparency audits, and youth-responsive policy design. It calls for a reimagining of digital public administration that centers equity, dissent tolerance, and democratic renewal.